27

The Pelee Hotel
Circa 1930
Pelee Island, Ontario

Credits:
Essex Kent Mennonite Historical Association

28

The Mennonite families were reluctant to attend the movie theatre when it opened at the West Side in the mid 1940s. Their children were allowed to go occasionally. Ticket prices were 42 cents for adults and 13 cents for children.

29

Pelee Island Town Hall: used for Island business, movies, and concerts
1947
Pelee Island, Ontario

Credits:
Essex Kent Mennonite Historical Association

30

Most necessary items were purchased at the West Side store. The North End store, owned by the McCormick family, and the entire Scudder area, was considered too prestigious for the immigrant Mennonites. One day in the 1940s, our Uncle John Wiebe took my brother Kurt and I (Astrid Gossen), to the North End and bought us each an ice-cream cone, an event I shall never forget!

31

McCormick's Grocery Store, North End where Nick and Agnes Wiens worked
Circa 1940
Pelee Island, Ontario

Credits:
Essex Kent Mennonite Historical Association

32

Pelee is a little like Holland: canals and pumping stations are needed to drain the Island’s low-lying land.

Because the Mennonite people originated in the Netherlands, the importance of canals would have been an obvious one to them. Many acres of land in the Island's interior could not be farmed because they were under water many months of the year. Canals needed to be dug and pump houses were built to lead the water back into the lake. The soil in the drained areas was rich and productive.

33

Centre Dyke Canal
Circa 1930
Pelee Island, Ontario

Credits:
Essex Kent Mennonite Historical Association

34

Young people standing on Centre Dyke bridge
1931
Pelee Island, Ontario

Credits:
Essex Kent Mennonite Historical Association

35

The Island's canals were deepened in 1938
1938
Pelee Island, Ontario

Credits:
Essex Kent Mennonite Historical Association

36

The quarry limestone rocks were used for shoreline protection. Island quarry stones were also used to build the Welland Canal.

37

Pelee Island Quarry
1940
Pelee Island, Ontario

Credits:
Essex Kent Mennonite Historical Association

38

The homes built with quarry stone were already there in 1924, when the first Mennonites arrived. Many boatloads of Pelee stone were earlier sent to the US for shoreline protection.

39

George Konrad & Hilda Thiessen in front of Isaac Klassen's stone house built with quarry stone
1942
Pelee Island, Ontario

Credits:
Essex Kent Mennonite Historical Association

40

George Wiens was the Island's Club House caretaker. He constructed a lawn mower using an old motorcycle motor.